Tuesday, 3 November 2009

MaltaStar: Gay activist asks President to withdraw papal invitation

Gay activist Patrick Attard has written a letter to President Dr George Abela asking him to withdraw the invitation to Pope Benedict XVI (Josef Ratzinger) to visit Malta unless the Pope withdraws his statements on gay and transgendered people.

According to Dr Attard, on the 1st October 1986 Cardinal Ratzinger, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith sent a letter to all Bishops saying that it is understandable that hate-crimes against gays increase if they are awarded more civil rights.

In his letter the pope said, "But the proper reaction to crimes committed against homosexual persons should not be to claim that the homosexual condition is not disordered. When such a claim is made and when homosexual activity is consequently condoned, or when civil legislation is introduced to protect behavior to which no one has any conceivable right, neither the Church nor society at large should be surprised when other distorted notions and practices gain ground, and irrational and violent reactions increase."

This was also echoed in his speech delivered on the 22nd December 2008 where he said that the blurring of gender leads to the auto-destruction of mankind.

According to Dr. Attard, in his writings he regularly calls gay relationships a intrinsic moral evil and objectively disordered.

"As a leader of an organisation representing more than 1 billion people his teachings spread homophobia and transphobia world-wide and justify and inspire innumerable hate-crimes against a minority whose only fault is being different"

Dr. Attard has also sent a letter to Pope Benedict XVI clarifying that not all Maltese welcome him and invite him to make an apology so that they can also welcome him.

"People who remain silent or apologise to such speeches are as guilty as a witness to a crime who fails to come forward", concluded Dr. Attard. "I am not anti-clerical or anti-Catholic and wish we could live in a country where people not only tollerate different people, but they accept them too as long as they don’t impose."

[Click on the hyperlink above to view the comments on MaltaStar's website.]

Maltese Gender Identity Law [Transgender / Intersex]

Civil Unions Parliamentary Debate and Vote

Note: The Civil Unions Bill [20/2014] has successfully passed through the Maltese Parliament with 37 votes in favour, 30 absentions and 0 votes against on the 14th April 2014. It gives the same rights and obbligations to same-sex couples as those who are registered in a civil marriage (mutatis mutandis).